File-sharing networks may battle each other

It had to happen sooner or later. After all, nearly everyone else in the computing industry is suing everyone else, it was only time before a P2P company took up legal action against another P2P.

"In a sign that file-sharing communities may start to turn on each other, Altnet said Thursday that rival networks may be violating its patent for digital tags and it plans to bring to them in line. In a first step, the Brilliant Digital Entertainment subsidiary Altnet on Thursday licensed its TrueNames patent to its biggest partner, Sharman Networks, owner of Kazaa Media Desktop. Kazaa is one of the most popular file-sharing communities on the Net."

This comes on the eve of the announcement that Kazaa will begin new systems of paying users to distribute legal, authorized media content, perhaps in the form of download rewards or even cash prizes.